I’m glad someone like the Washington Post’s Todd Frankel took a long, detailed look at just what America’s biggest universities have “invested” in Israel, and/or America’s defense industries. Because we’ve seen chaos on America’s campuses in the name of “divestment,” without much sense of just how much these schools could divest if they so desired.
Frankel’s answer is there’s a bit here and there, but overall, U.S. collegiate financial ties to Israel are few and far between and mostly represented by investments in companies that do business all over the world.
The Post’s examination of annual reports, Securities and Exchange Commission and IRS filings, and financial databases found some signs of what student protesters have tried calling attention to, such as Michigan State’s endowment holding $480,000 in bonds for Lockheed Martin, a leader in the defense industry. The endowment for Texas schools held several millions in Israeli Shekel investments but sold them last year. It appears to still have about $750,000 in Qatari Riyal investments. Most endowment funds’ direct holdings often appeared more curious than controversial, however: Ohio State’s endowment invested in a direct-to-consumer cat food firm.
Frankel found that UTIMCO, investment manager for the University of Texas and Texas A&M school systems, had $4 million to $8 million in a venture capital fund run by TLV Partners, based in Tel Aviv. That’s for school endowments that add up to roughly $55 billion. Forget less than one percent; the TLV Partners investment represents one six thousand eight hundred seventy-fifth of the entire endowments.
Few universities have any portion of their endowments directly invested in any Israeli company. The universities usually invest their endowments in index funds, which hold shares of stock in lots and lots of companies, with regular buying and selling of shares to maximize returns.
It’s a shame none of these institutions have a business school or economics department full of people who understand all this, and who were professionally trained to explain it. If only these universities had people who were knowledgeable about how international finance works, and who could explain to the protesting students how little their university endowments invest in causes they find morally abhorrent!
The Post’s higher education reporter, Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, explains that the anti-Israel BDS movement – boycott, divest, and sanction — wants universities to “take a closer look at their endowments and sell off any investments that are supportive of weapons manufacturers or companies that do business with the country of Israel.”
You know which companies “do business with Israel”? Just about every household name! McDonalds, Amazon, Disney, Google, Chevron, Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard, Texaco, Intel. If you say, “don’t invest in any company that does business with Israel,” you’re telling the university to limit their investments to a small group of companies that haven’t expanded to Israel yet.
By the way, do any of these students have any problems with investments in companies that do business in, say, China? I mean, the Chinese government is indisputably committing genocide. How about all those companies still doing business in Russia? Anybody want to wave signs and protest any of that? Nah, just the Jews, huh?
The whole “divestment” movement is a combination of wanting moral purity by not having any financial tie to Israel, along with a spectacularly misguided belief that if enough U.S. institutions divested from Israel, the Jewish state would be forced to make concessions on policy.
Guys, I realize few of you majored in math or international relations, but this isn’t going to work. Both the Israel government and the Israel people prioritize eliminating the threat from Hamas – which still has hostages, remember! – over maximizing foreign investment. If you choose to yank your six-figure sum, they’ll find a way to carry on.
And even if all of America’s colleges and universities suddenly decided to divest any holding even remotely connected to Israel, there would still be no shortage of foreign investment. The world does not lack for people with capital who are looking for a good rate of return. Israel has the 28th-largest economy in the world, with a gross domestic product of roughly $530 billion. U.S. goods and services trade with Israel totaled an estimated $50.6 billion in 2022. Exports were $20.0 billion; imports were $30.6 billion. Sure, since October 7, the country has suffered an economic slowdown – a lot of human capital has been diverted to the war. But you’d have to inflict crippling economic damage to get the Israelis willing to make the concessions that the students want.
These kids trashed their campuses, harassed fellow students, disrupted classes, and in some cases got themselves arrested, all for a goal that was never realistic and was never going to happen. And just think, these are allegedly some of our best and brightest.
These kids say they support Palestine, but can’t be bothered to learn how to spell it.